


Missed Train Confessions

by FollowTheFirefly



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Fluff, Inspired By Tumblr, M/M, Slow Burn, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 20:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13151454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowTheFirefly/pseuds/FollowTheFirefly
Summary: In which a missed train leaves Kei and Tadashi stuck at the station, but Kei has something else on his mind.





	Missed Train Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wrestling with this one for a while. I got the idea from a prompt post on Tumblr and this basically wrote itself. I wish the ending was a bit better, but overall, I'm quite pleased with the result.

“Well, that’s our train pulling out of the station. Now what’re we supposed to do?”

Kei stopped short of the turnstile, watching the words on the timetable board above his head change. There was no reason for them to miss the train. It was scheduled to leave at two-thirty and it was just after two o’clock. They had plenty of time, so why did the schedule say that their train had just left the station?

“No, can’t be.” Kei shook his head, bolting through the turnstile, dragging his suitcase behind him as he raced up to the platform. “We’ve got almost half an hour.”

“And yet there it is going down the tracks.” Tadashi stopped next to him, panting slightly after his short dash to keep up with his roommate. He pulled their tickets out of his pocket and glanced down at the small print before holding it out to Kei. “Look, it says it was train A419 from platform three. And what does it say on the train?”

“A419…” Kei read the bright orange letters on the side of the train that was slowly moving away from the station. “From platform three.” He glared at the platform sign as if it was to blame for their predicament. “Fuck.”

“Maybe something happened and it had to leave early?” Tadashi gently pulled Kei away from the edge of the platform, Kei’s heart jumping a bit when Tadashi grabbed his hand. “Here, take my luggage and find a place to sit and call your brother.”

“While you do what?” Kei sounded angrier than he had intended.

“While I go try to see what’s going on. Maybe we can get another ticket for a different train.” Tadashi inched his suitcase towards Kei. “Just tell Akiteru-kun, okay?”

With that, Tadashi took off, leaving a rather confused Kei to cart the luggage over to an open bench near some vending machines.

“Just my luck.”

Kei sat down on the bench, pulling out his headphones and his book from his bag. He sent a quick text to his brother, slid the headphones over his ears after picking a good song to listen to, and had just started to read when an overly cheerful MIDI ringtone echoed through the air.

“Can’t he just text back?”

Kei shoved his sticky note back into his book and picked up the phone.

“A text would suffice, Aki-nii.”

 _“But what happened?!”_ Akiteru’s panicked voice came through the receiver and Kei pulled the phone back, wincing at how loud his brother’s voice was.

“Tadashi went to find out.” Kei leaned back against the wall, the cold of the brick sending a shiver down his spine. “The train left early, but we don’t know why.”

“ _So do you think you’ll get here tonight or…”_ Akiteru’s voice trailed off.

“We’ll have to see what Tadashi says when he gets back.” Kei snapped testily. “Honestly, nothing good ever happens when we have family functions.”

“ _Yes, but you guys can’t get out of it this year. Last time you guys missed the Christmas party because you and Tadashi spent it with his family.”_ Akiteru told him.

“I know, I know.” Kei groaned. “And don’t say it like that. It makes it seem like we’re dating or something.”

“ _Well…”_

“Aki-nii…” Kei threatened slowly, carefully enunciating each syllable.

 _“But you guys act like you are already. Nana and Midori were asking me about it earlier.”_ Akiteru sounded smug, much to Kei’s frustration. “ _Still haven’t told him yet?”_

“Of course I haven’t told him.” Kei could feel his face growing warm. He looked back at the ticket office to see Tadashi waiting in line, absentmindedly tapping his foot as he stared at his phone. “Why would I tell him that?”

_“Because he’s been your best friend since you were eight and I’m sure he’s noticed? You’re not very subtle about it, you know.”_

“And you’re not helping. You always act weird whenever you visit, asking if he has a boyfriend and all that.” Kei leaned his elbow against his knee. “He’s going to get suspicious.”

“ _Both of you know the other is gay, so what’s the big deal?_ ” Akiteru questioned. “ _And I thought you’d want him to know that you like him?”_

“You’re trying to interfere, Aki-nii.” Kei huffed.

“ _Can you really call it interfering when you’re doing everything short of telling him?”_ Akiteru reiterated. “ _I’m not sure how Tadashi hasn’t figured it out. You’ve been flirting with him a lot lately, more than usual, I think. But really, you could just tell him. Unless…”_

 _“_ Unless what?” Kei tried to prepare himself for whatever foolish thing Akiteru was going to say.

 _“Unless you think he won’t like you back?”_ Akiteru assumed. _“But why would you think that? No one aside from family has put up with you for as long as Tadashi has.”_

“What a loving brother,” Kei hissed.

“ _Is that it? Is that why you won’t tell him?”_ Kei was always astonished how his brother’s train of thought could jump from topic to topic so quickly. “ _Kei, that’s actually pretty depressing. I mean-“_

“How did we even get onto this line of conversation?” Kei pinched the bridge of his nose, refusing to answer Akiteru’s question.

“ _Anyway, let me know what’s going on, okay? I’ll tell Mom and Dad about it,”_ Akiteru sounded defeated, as if he knew his brother wasn’t going to tell him anything. _“And say hi to Tadashi for me!”_

“You can tell him when we get there in a few hours.” Kei hung up before Akiteru could say anything else.

He checked his phone for the time before he opened his book again. He didn’t have much time to read before-

“Kei, every time you call your brother, you look like you’ve been issued one of Hercules’ challenges.”

Kei sighed, marking his place in his book once more.

“You know how Aki-nii is.” He moved over to let Tadashi have some space on the bench, noticing how Tadashi’s face was set in a frustrated frown. “So what happened?”

“There were a few stories going around the ticket office, so no one really knows for sure.” Tadashi grabbed his suitcase and moved it over, managing to sit next to Kei on the small bench.

“Sounds enlightening.” Kei looked over at Tadashi, who looked very confused, and said, “Sorry, I’m just in a bit of a mood.”

“Oh, I can always tell you are,” Tadashi said. “And you always have a certain look when it’s your brother that makes you angry.”

“But is that all?” Kei leaned forward and shoved his book back in his bag, realizing that he wasn’t going to get any reading done anytime soon.

“They gave us tickets for the next train, but it doesn’t leave for almost another hour.” Tadashi pulled two tickets from his pocket and gave one to Kei.

“Could be worse.” Kei shrugged. “Thanks for sorting it out.”

“No problem. You needed to let Akiteru-kun know what was going on.” Tadashi nodded. “But why does it seem like something always happens whenever we see your family?”

“That’s exactly what I was saying.” Kei nodded. “Makes me wish we could go see your family more often.”

“You just don’t want to deal with Akiteru-kun being nosy.” Tadashi had heard Kei complain about it many times. “Is that what he was doing earlier?”

“When is it not?” Kei scowled.

“You know he means well.” Tadashi tried to tell him.

“If he did, he’d stop butting in,” Kei said.

“Trying to get you to talk to that guy you like?” Tadashi assumed, elbowing Kei in the ribs.

“That obvious?” Kei stole a glance at Tadashi.

“That seems to upset you the most.” Tadashi grinned sheepishly, a hint of pink creeping across his cheeks.

“He doesn’t get at you about not having a boyfriend,” Kei pointed out.

“I’m also not his brother.” Tadashi pulled out his phone to check his messages. “But what did you tell him?”

“I told him I couldn’t, obviously.” Kei ran his thumb around the edge of his phone. “He knows I’m bad with emotions and things like that.”

“If Hinata can tell Kageyama, then you can tell this guy that you like him, okay?” Tadashi tried to sound encouraging. He looked down at his phone to see a recent text. “Apparently Akiteru-kun’s texting me too.”

“Be glad you don’t have him as a brother.” Kei groaned, unlocking his phone so he could text Akiteru. “But you’re practically family already. You’ve been showing up to family functions since we were kids.” He slid the headphones down to his shoulders. “Even Dad’s work dinners. I don’t know why they invite you to those.”

“Because they know that’s the only way you’ll go.” Tadashi admitted.

“Still.” Kei crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Your family functions aren’t horrible anyway.” Tadashi nudged Kei. “The last Christmas party wasn’t so bad.”

“You weren’t there the year Uncle Kenji showed up drunk.” Kei grimaced at the memory.

“Aoi and Midori have told me enough stories that I can imagine how it went.” Tadashi shook his head.

“I guess I should tell Midori you’re coming this year,” Kei said. “Mom said she was asking about you earlier.”

“Oh, she found me online,” Tadashi said offhandedly. “We’re good.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised.” Kei sighed. “Well, I just texted Aki-nii, so now we just wait.”

“You can read your book now, at least.” Tadashi tried to point out something positive.

“I’ll just wait until we get on the train.” Kei shrugged, shifting his headphones. “Less distractions that way.”

“But you’ll still listen to your music, right?” Tadashi gave Kei a knowing grin.

“As always.” Kei returned the smile.

“The English band who are always angry with the government?” Tadashi assumed.

“And your favourite space rock.” Kei showed him his iPod.

“You mean your favourite.” Tadashi popped the case on and off his phone. “I like them okay, but you like them a lot more than I do.”

“They’re good music.” Kei leaned back against the wall. “I wouldn’t listen to anything that wasn’t good.”

The two fell into a comfortable silence, each checking the messages on his phone and Kei occasionally changing songs on his iPod. Every now and then, Tadashi would lean over him to show him a funny picture and would ask what Kei was listening to.

Kei kept finding his attention wandering back to Tadashi, how the other boy was watching his phone, completely unaware of how anxious he was making him feel. As much as he wanted to say something, Kei knew that nothing good would come of it. If they started dating and something happened that caused them to separate, it would likely cost them their friendship. And Kei valued Tadashi’s friendship more than anything.

He’d closed his eyes and was attempting to take a short nap to get a break from it all when a text from Akiteru woke him up.

_Still think you should tell him._

Kei glared at his phone, annoyed that Akiteru was still going on about a subject that Kei clearly wanted the conversation dropped.

_There’s no point. Why are you still talking about this, anyway?_

He turned to look at Tadashi, who was playing a game on his phone and completely unaware of how anxious Kei was about it all.

Akiteru’s response came quickly enough.

_Because there’s no way that Tadashi hasn’t realized it by now. Besides, they always say that you always want to call your partner your best friend, right? And Tadashi’s already got that covered._

He just didn’t know when to quit, did he?

_I can’t just tell him something like that, no matter how much I want to._

“What is it that you want to tell me, Kei?”

Kei’s eyes shot up to Tadashi, who was giving him a rather confused look.

“Tadashi, did you see what he said?”

“I did.” Tadashi nodded. “And I also know what he’s talking about.”

“Then what is it that I want to tell you?” Kei challenged.

“That you like me.” Tadashi was confident enough. “And before you say anything, more than just a friend.”

“You seem pretty confident about that.” Kei was trying to maintain a façade of nonchalance.

“I figured it out years ago, but I was waiting to see if you’d tell me.” Tadashi went on. “Hinata told me I should go for it since he knew already, but I wanted to hear it from you first.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told Hinata.” Kei cursed himself for thinking it was okay to tell Hinata anything personal. Or anything that didn’t relate to volleyball, for that matter.

“He notices more than you’d think,” Tadashi said.

“But wait, why would you…” Kei’s mind raced as he tried to piece together the information. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“That I like you, too? Yes, it does.” Tadashi nodded, Kei noticing how astonishingly calm he was about all of it.

“But you didn’t say anything?” Kei frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“I told you, I was waiting to hear you tell me first,” Tadashi said. “I don’t know why I did, but still.” He leaned back against the wall. “Actually, I was getting really tired of waiting and was going to tell you this weekend if you hadn’t said anything, but I guess I don’t have to now.”

“Tadashi, you do know that you’re not making much sense, right?” Kei questioned.

“Well, things don’t make much sense when your roommate is your best friend that you’ve had a crush on since elementary school,” Tadashi pointed out. “Especially when you’re waiting for him to notice and he seems as oblivious as anything.”

“Well, what if I asked you out now?” Kei asked, looking back at Tadashi.

“You know I’d say yes,” Tadashi said with a smile.

“It’s not my fault I didn’t notice any of this,” Kei reached over to put an arm around Tadashi.

“Except it kinda is.” Tadashi retorted. “If even Hinata could figure out that I like you, then there’s no way you couldn’t.”

“You kept distracting me,” Kei said. “And you know I’m not good enough with words that I could tell you.”

“People can say a lot with actions, you know.” Tadashi pointed out.

“It would’ve been pretty weird if I just kissed you out of the blue like that.” Kei felt compelled to say.

“I don’t think I would’ve minded,” Tadashi shook his head.

“And don’t you think it would’ve been too sappy anyway?” Kei looked down at Tadashi.

“Again, I don’t think I’d mind that much,” Tadashi reiterated. “Sometimes sappy can be a good thing.”

“Okay, then you can be the sappy one for both of us,” Kei said.

“Works for me.” Tadashi grinned before he leaned up and pressed his lips to Kei’s.

“I could get used to that.” Kei smiled.

“It’s just nice to be able to tell you.” Tadashi leaned against Kei’s shoulder.

“You could’ve told me at any time, you know.” Kei told him.

“So could you,” Tadashi said.

“I didn’t know you knew.” Kei was defensive. “Clearly you had the upper hand here.”

“Though apparently it looked like we were dating already.” Tadashi rubbed the back of his neck. “According to Hinata, anyway.”

“Aki-nii said the same thing earlier.” Kei shrugged a shoulder. “Fuck, I guess I’d better tell him, shouldn’t I?”

“Probably.” Tadashi nodded. “He’d want to know this sort of thing.”

“Hey, how much time do we have?” Kei asked suddenly, searching his pockets for the train ticket.

“About ten minutes, I think.” Tadashi checked his own ticket. “Maybe we should go out to the platform early.”

“Yeah, I don’t feel like missing the train again.” Kei stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder. “Lest we show up even later than we were before.”

“We have a valid excuse, you know.” Tadashi told him. He grabbed, Kei’s hand and pulled him off towards the platform. “So you have a bit of time to prepare for the barrage of questions Akiteru-kun’s going to ask you.”

“You know, I really was trying not to think of that.” Kei grimaced, trying to ignore his phone buzzing in his pocket that was sure to signal a text from his brother.


End file.
